Marchers walk up Charleston’s main bridge to meet in the middle in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
9:30 p.m.
Thousands of people marched across Charleston’s main bridge in a show of unity after nine Black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study.
Crowds gathered on either side of the bridge around dusk and then met toward the middle of the span. Part of the bridge was closed as people were walking, chatting and taking pictures.
When the marchers from the Mount Pleasant side and the Charleston side met on the bridge, there was clapping and singing of “This Little Light of Mine.”
8:30 p.m.
People raise their hands as a show of unity as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston’s main bridge after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
Thousands of people are meeting up on Charleston’s main bridge in a show of unity after nine Black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study.
The crowds are planning on holding hands across the bridge around dusk. Part of the bridge is closed as people are walking, chatting and taking pictures.
When the marchers from the Mount Pleasant side and the Charleston side met on the bridge, there was clapping and singing of “This little light of mine.”
“It feels great. There’s so much love out here,” said Juliett Marsh of Summerville, who was toward the front of the marchers who walked from the Mount Pleasant side.
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The Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff speaks during a worship service at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C., four days after a mass shooting at the church claimed the lives of its pastor and eight others. (Paul Zoeller/The Post And Courier via AP)
8:20 p.m.
The wife and youngest daughter of a pastor who was fatally shot along with eight parishioners were inside the Charleston, South Carolina, church at the time of the shooting.
Jennifer Pinckney and her daughter were in the pastor’s study when the shooting happened Wednesday night, the Rev. Norvel Goff, interim pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, told The Associated Press on Sunday night.
They locked the door, hid under the desk and called 911, Goff said.
“It was awful and horrible and unthinkable and evil,” he said.
Goff said he himself left the church 20 minutes before the Bible study began that night. He said he had been conducting a quarterly business conference with about 50 church leaders, including the Rev. Pinckney and his wife.
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8 p.m.
People pray during a service at St. Matthew African Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Orange, N.J. The service offered prayers and thoughts of the nine people who were killed at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, last Wednesday. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Churchgoers across the country are praying for the nine parishioners fatally shot at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
From Little Rock, Arkansas, to Atlanta, Chicago and Portland, Maine, pastors of all denominations on Sunday urged their flocks to stand in unity with the families of the victims and to resist the kind of hatred that appeared to behind Wednesday’s mass killing.
In Chicago, religious leaders planned an interfaith, interracial prayer service at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church where the Rev. Marshall Hatch is pastor.
“We can’t let hate win,” Hatch told The Associated Press before the service.
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7:30 p.m.
The interim pastor for the historic Black church where nine parishioners were fatally shot says funeral services for most of the victims will be held later this week.
The Rev. Norvel Goff also confirmed a previous report that funeral services for the church’s late head pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, will be held Friday.
Goff declined to release specific details on services for the others until family members have a chance to finalize arrangements.
Pinckney’s casket will be at the Statehouse for public viewing on Wednesday afternoon. Additional public viewings will be held Thursday at a Columbia church and at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Pinckney and the others were shot.
Dylann Roof is charged with nine counts of murder in the death of the parishioners.
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7 p.m.
People have started to gather at a famous bridge in South Carolina where they plan to join hands in solidarity.
People join hands as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston’s main bridge in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
One of those who showed up at the Arthur Ravenel Bridge on Sunday evening was 58-year-old accountant Sherry Howard of Moncks Corner. Howard said she drove 45 minutes to attend.
Asked why she came out, she said: “One reason is for unity. And another reason is to show that even though we are hurting and we’re broken now, we are of one accord.”
The shooting was a tragedy, “but out of that tragedy, look what came about: love,” she said, gesturing toward dozens of people who were walking toward the gathering point.
The bridge is named after a former state lawmaker and vocal Confederate flag supporter. The slayings have renewed calls for the flag to be removed from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds, in part because photographs of Roof in a purported manifesto showed him holding Confederate flags.
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6:30 p.m.
Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten says the autopsies of the nine parishioners fatally shot at a historic black church in Charleston have been completed.
Wooten says that as expected, each of the nine died of multiple gunshot wounds, and all of the deaths have been classified as homicides.
Wooten says the bodies will be released to family members and funeral homes.
She says details of the autopsies are “not likely” to be released until the trial.
Asked if the victims received other injuries besides gunshots, Wooten replied that she found “nothing of consequence.”